MS Excel: SEARCH function to find position of a text

The SEARCH function in Excel is used to find the position (as a number) of one text string within another. Unlike the FIND function, SEARCH is not case-sensitive and supports the use of wildcards, making it more flexible for general text searches.

It’s especially helpful when extracting, checking, or manipulating substrings in dynamic text operations.

Syntax

=SEARCH(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

Parameters:

Argument	Description
find_text	Required. The text you want to find.
within_text	Required. The text in which you want to search.
start_num	Optional. The position in the string to start the search. Default is 1.

Returns: A number indicating the position of find_text in within_text.

Examples with Tables

Example 1: Basic Search

=SEARCH("e", "Excel")

Formula	Result
=SEARCH("e", "Excel")	1

Explanation: The first occurrence of "e" is at position 1 in "Excel".

Example 2: Search Not Case-Sensitive

=SEARCH("X", "Excel")

Formula	Result
=SEARCH("X", "Excel")	2

Explanation: Unlike FIND, this function treats lowercase and uppercase equally.

Example 3: Start Search from a Specific Position

=SEARCH("e", "Experience", 5)

Formula	Result
=SEARCH("e", "Experience", 5)	8

Explanation: The first "e" after position 5 is at position 8.

Example 4: Using Wildcards

=SEARCH("ex?l", "excel")

Formula	Result
=SEARCH("ex?l", "excel")	1

Explanation: ? matches any single character (c in this case).

=SEARCH("e*l", "email label")

Formula	Result
=SEARCH("e*l", "email label")	1

Explanation: * matches any number of characters.

SEARCH vs FIND

Feature	SEARCH	FIND
Case sensitivity	❌ Not case-sensitive	✅ Case-sensitive
Wildcards supported	✅ Yes (?, *)	❌ No
Usage flexibility	More forgiving, more general	More exact matching

Use Cases

Scenario	How SEARCH Helps
Extracting parts of text	Find start positions for MID, LEFT, or RIGHT
Checking content existence	Combine with ISNUMBER or IF for logic checks
Data validation	Verify patterns in strings
Parsing structured data	Locate characters like “-”, “/”, or “@” in strings

Example: Extract Domain Name from Email

Suppose A1 = john.doe@example.com

=RIGHT(A1, LEN(A1) - SEARCH("@", A1))

Step	Formula	Result
Find @ position	SEARCH("@", A1)	9
Get domain name	RIGHT(A1, LEN(A1) - 9)	example.com

Notes

• If find_text is not found, Excel returns a #VALUE! error.

• Wildcards only work in SEARCH, not in FIND.

• Always use IFERROR() or ISNUMBER() to handle errors safely.

Example with Error Handling

=IFERROR(SEARCH("test", A1), "Not found")

Related Functions

Function	Description
FIND	Same as SEARCH but case-sensitive
MID	Extracts characters from the middle of a string
LEFT	Extracts the first N characters
RIGHT	Extracts the last N characters
LEN	Returns length of a text string
ISNUMBER	Checks if result is a number (used with SEARCH)

Summary

Feature	Description
Function Name	SEARCH
Purpose	Find position of substring in text
Case-sensitive	❌ No
Supports wildcards	✅ Yes (?, *)
Returns	Position as number or #VALUE! if not found

Final Thoughts

The SEARCH function is ideal for locating patterns or substrings inside text. It's especially useful in combination with extraction and logic functions like MID, LEFT, IF, and ISNUMBER—making it a powerful part of any data cleaning or parsing task in Excel.